CM Zeriyah Answers Questions About The Hearthstone Open Beta

The Hearthstone Open Beta… Where is it already?

There have been a lot of questions regarding the Hearthstone open beta, particularly when it will happen and why it hasn’t happened already. Since the public beta has begun those participating haven’t been restricted by an NDA and have been able to stream and talk about the game publicly. This alone, is unusual for games in closed beta and have led people to wonder if Blizzard isn’t just holding out on the Hearthstone Open Beta.

Zeriyah popped into the thread on multiple occasions to answer questions about what we can expect in regard to the Hearthstone beta and had this to say:

We totally understand that the community wants open beta, but the simple truth of the matter is that the game isn’t quite ready for it yet. As you may have read in an earlier blog, we anticipated that we’re going to have to rebalance some cards based on feedback in the closed beta, and that’s certainly true. We still have the wipe ahead of us as well. So, there will still be some time between now and open beta.

Open beta will happen once we are ready for it so we can ensure the transition between closed to open beta will go as smoothly as possible for everyone.

But, what about those who think Blizzard is just holding the game back despite not needing to? It is true that this beta has functioned a bit differently with there not being an NDA to speak of. And, several people, including myself have said that the game feels more polished than any game in closed beta previously. However, while it may seem on the surface that the game is ready for an open beta run Blizzard doesn’t think so.

Within the same HearthPwn thread another community member stated that he felt that Blizzard could certainly do an open beta and that they are choosing not to for their own nefarious purposes. Zeriyah replied to his concerns as well stating the following:

Are we capable of open beta? Capable isn’t quite the word that is appropriate here. Are we ready for the open beta right now? The answer to that question is no. We have balance changes and other features to implement before going into open beta, as well as other things on the back end to ensure a smooth transition between beta phases.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to assume that we are not releasing open beta simply because we don’t want to. We want to! And we will, when it is ready – When we are happy with balance, when we are happy with features and functionality, when the bugs have been shooed off and the medals have ample place to be hung.

So, for now, it seems we still have a bit of a wait before the Hearthstone open beta will hit. I know… I know… But… All of that said, it could land sooner than many of us are thinking it will. Zeriyah has given us the list of what they’re needing to get done before it happens. And they have more than a few things they’re looking at getting just right.

Just crap i say, cause every single streamer of 2 ppl or 1 only gets keys to give or sell and the ppl taht actually opt in for closed beta dont get anything…

WingsOfChicken

Well said..the first wave went out to blizzard employees and family. What about us and people who want to play and give feedback???

thavleifrim

people who just want to play and give feedback who aren’t streamers or popular personalities in the community did get in the first wave, you just didn’t hear about it because they aren’t streamers or popular personalities.

Zesar

I’m not a streamer or a popular personality and I got into Beta, not sure if it was in the first wave or not. maybe 2nd. Its just luck I think.

thavleifrim

it is just luck, people assume that because nobody they know got in that nobody who isnt a streamer is getting in, which is categorically not true.

WingsOfChicken

I knew about it…

oldmordim

Know of 2 MtG ex tournament players who didnt get keys.

lilmissy4205

It’s only been 39 days. I think more people are in this closed beta for the first month is so much more impressive than other closed betas. People only want it to go open now because of the lack of NDA.

Vickor Gearbox

I would love to play it but i never got a key, been signed up since the
first day they said you could for beta, and i watch people stream and
some have like 4 keys, and some do not even like cards games, oh well
and don’t get me started on the Blizzard CS Facebook give away that
was just free keys to bots!

Silas TheBody Hven

Balancing the game properly will only come through an open beta, maybe they should focus on bug fixing…

lilmissy4205

Because of how people view open beta now, that isn’t necessarily the case this time. Most see open beta as a chance to trail the game. If it isn’t super polished and as close to how it should feel when it goes live, people won’t stick around. It makes sense to keep it in closed beta.

luvbac0n

Marketing experiment. Nothing more. They’ve made no changes so far. They’ll make a few token changes to justify the “Closed Beta”, but the game is ready for Open Beta. Everyone knows this. They want to see if an open beta where the public doesn’t get to play, look but don’t touch, followed by a conventional open beta, generates more hype than the usual method. I’m just hoping this whole attempt at creating a feeding frenzy by using the streamers and starving the public blows up in their face so they don’t do this with future betas.

lilmissy4205

And I ask you, where is my spectator mode? I feel it isn’t ready until that and an easier way to do tournaments is implemented. Also, see my explanation on how people view open beta below.

Kgmck177

“And we will, when it is ready – When we are happy with balance, when we are happy with features and functionality, when the bugs have been shooed off and the medals have ample place to be hung.”

This sounds like the aim of a Release, not an open BETA. Zeriyah is just a fcking moron. I don’t care about lack of NDA but unless they’re running 52k modems for the servers, this game in its current state is ready for the next stage of Beta Testing, which is Open. They really are just holding back on us, since Zeriyah doesn’t seem to have a legitimate reason.

lilmissy4205

First, cursing out a community manger is not polite. Secondly, with how most people view open beta then it makes sense to have it as polished as possible. More often than not, open beta is a trailer period to people. Not to mention a chance to stress out the server load with stress tests.

-edit-
And it should be noted that the community manger isn’t the one making the decision. She is the voice for the developer decision. GG.

Anthony Botz

If you’ve been paying attention to messaging the “Open Beta” is going to be the standard F2P “Open Beta” where it is more of a soft release. After the Open Beta begins they will not do collection wipes, or level resets. If that’s the case the card set needs to be confirmed. There are significant issues that must be resolved before this. Rogues are strong, Warriors are weak. Some cards need adjustments. There are bugs, the game crashes rarely, but it does crash. Network hiccups cause a loss, in arena that is infuriating and needs to be addressed. There are some weird animation bugs, cards that bounce around when attacks are made causing the order of the cards on the field to appear different than they truly are. Secrets and some other spells get stuck in animation loops. There are mechanic bugs, Knife Jugglers throw knives when a mind vision copies a minion. There are features missing, no achievement list. In short, this game is not ready for launch, which is what an open beta for a free to play game with a cash shop is. I know you want to play, but giving hundreds of thousands of players access to an incomplete product is counter productive.

Bradley Clinton

Edited because of bad wording.
Not to be a jerk or anything like that, but the mod seems slightly biased. It is entirely possible that blizzard is holding back to increase hype, and it is entirely within their right to do so. I just think there needs to be an unbiased opinion on it.

lilmissy4205

If you have an issue with how I am explaining simple view points, such as the fact that players have change the concept of open beta or use the former description whenever they please, then you can file your complaint to cm@gamebreaker.tv

Bradley Clinton

I apologize. I meant no offence, but can you at least acknowledge that there is a chance that the other commenters could be right. I understand your points, but it doesn’t seem like you are looking at both sides.

Edit. Also, I completely agree that some of the people are just as unbiased. I just thought a mod of a news site should look at both sides.

lilmissy4205

Part of a discussion is to counter the points. If everyone agreed with each other, then there goes the discussion part of the whole thing.

Also, I don’t see how naysaying a community manager, like the post I was probably “mean” in is very constructive.

Bradley Clinton

I understand so here are some of my counter points. Most of the time with closed betas the game isn’t streamed in front of those that want to play it to this level. Many of the streams seem near perfect when compared to similar games. (I.E. Scrolls.) I get that some demand is from the lack of NDA, but doesn’t this seem like a little much. Some of the streamers are not interested in card games, but play and do giveaways just for the extra views. There have been more giveaway keys than opt in keys. To me that says that it is more marketing than testing. In my opinion it seems like they are trying to avoid what happened with D3 (releasing too early), but are erring on the other side. The way many of the giveaways have happened is just terrible. (I.E. PCGamer.)

I fixed the wording on my first comment. I truly didn’t mean to offend.

lilmissy4205

Yes, most closed betas have that NDA where you can’t even say you are in beta. As I’ve stated, I feel the reason that the NDA is lifted is because it is easier to see how deck compositions actually play out visually than seeing it from the back end. Yes, the back end gives more information, but you can listen to the players be able analyse why the use the cards when.

False. There have been more opt-in keys than there have been beta keys in giveaways. From what I have seen, most fansites get anywhere from five to twenty keys. Blizzard themselves tosses opt-in keys in waves of 100-200. Then they did the 900 BlizzardCS giveaway.

I don’t even know if PCGamer was real or the false key generation system. They also handled that giveaway terribly by just entering email and sending the key. That was not the fault of Blizzard. That was the fault of that site.

There was even a few other “advertisements” on our forums for 140 keys and those were scams.

Between NA and EU opt-ins plus the few giveaways from Blizzard official, there’s been around 1000-2000 keys given out.

Also, the idea of Blizzard giving out beta keys to fansites is to broaden the audience. So yes, this is a marketing ploy. But if you were having fun in a game you created, wouldn’t you want to also share it with as many people as possible.

Believe it or not, game companies aren’t out just to make fun and amazing games. Yes, Blizzard seems to be part of the better group of game companies because they LOVE their job and don’t really look at the dollar sign. But that dollar sign is still there regardless.

Although I believe Zeriyah, support her, and wish for the cleanest release possible for this game. I can’t help but have a gripe with Blizzard and their integrity with methods of key distribution. The normal weekly waves of keys to random opt-ins seems to be the fairest and best system for distribution.The keys given to streamers is smart. The free marketing by streamers is a great way to build attention for the game while teaching mechanics and showing obvious balancing issues, this I can see becoming a new marketing standard for f2p betas…however the sweepstakes are not very constructive for the community. After all the build up by popular streams people feel more and more left out and get the illusion that everyone else is getting a key but them. In desperation the community is shelving out hundreds of dollars to people (for a free to play game…) who couldn’t care less about the keys they get (which is odd to me how the same sellers on Ebay are continuously in stock of working keys.) I don’t understand why Blizzard has no restriction on selling keys or takes the time to scout Ebay and do something about the jerks who are exploiting their future customers. It’s discouraging people (including myself) from wanting to support this game. I also know that Blizzard is very strict with internal keys within gaming companies. No one is allowed to share or give a key to people outside of the companies included in closed beta. So the logic seems a little backwards to me. So I guess my tl;dr version is…

Zeriyah, why is Blizzard so strict with possible keys leaking around with some alternative methods but give no restrictions or consequences to random people willing to sell their keys and exploit your audience/community? Especially since you see no immediate revenue from Ebay sellers…

oldmordim

Excellent comment, just had to say that. After over 10 years trying to get into any Blizzard Beta phase, this “viral” key hype is leaving a bitter taste behind. Seeing people constantly “selling” those keys across all social mediums or stream chats is enough to steer many away and create a cynical state of mind.

Highly experienced players write lengthy genuine messages/applications and yet still sit by and see others turn that key into a “moneyspinner” of some kind.

Keys just seem to be lottery for ALL & those with a high follower base, only using the self created “viral” nature to generate more followers, rather than actually “test” a game and give detailed feedback.

Will this Viral hype actually backfire? Will the open beta come around Blizzcon? and will the full release still come in Q4 for revenue’s sake?

Shoobop

Thank you oldmordim!

With the recent development of the wipe announcement it looks like the ball may be rolling with the next beta phase. I’m also speculating a release date during Blizzcon and the possible open beta announcement. Which would be great news for those who hate those key sellers as much as I do, no more hype machine, just actual answers for the fan base.

p.s. The 11 year old in me really wanted to follow your previous comment with

“Will this Viral hype actually backfire? Will the open beta come around Blizzcon? and will the full release still come in Q4 for revenue’s sake? Find out all this and more next time on Dragon Ball Z!” hehehe…